He was in talks last week - and, according to Deadline, he's still in talks - but it looks increasingly likely that Shane Black, the magnificent bastard who wrote Lethal Weapon and **The Last Boy Scout **and who wrote and directed Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, will direct Iron Man 3.
That means he's set for a reunion with his Kiss Kiss star, Robert Downey Jr., and given the astonishing dialogue and fireworks that resulted last time around, we have no problem with that whatsoever. We may even be wetter than Drew Barrymore in a grunge bar, but we couldn't possibly comment.
Black has tried to get a number of projects off the ground since his 2005 directorial debut, including **Doc Savage **and Cold Warrior, while he was also briefly attached to write Lethal Weapon 5. So far, though, he hasn't quite got back behind the camera, so it's something of a surprise to see him attached to a project of this magnitude, but we've no doubt that he'll be able to handle it.
Strangely, Deadline reports that Black - for our money the best dialoguesmith in Hollywood - may not write the script for Iron Man 3, with Marvel presumably worried that he might make Tony Stark eff and cee and cuss like a trooper. But we're sure that, when all's said and done, he'll work his magic on the script at some point.